Wednesday, September 12, 2012

India’s performance
in London Olympics resulted in high TRP rates for Non-Crickers in the recent
times. Many argued that India’s medal tally will be doubled and the country
will be reckoned as a sporting power by next Olympics. While analyzing the medals tally and toppers
performance in the Olympics, one can easily figure out that each country has
competed based on their strength and won the maximum number of medals in their
strongholds. Many suggest that India should also focus on in the items like
Boxing, Wrestling, Shooting etc to increase their tally in the coming games.
Who knows what our Sports mandarians think about these strategies? Same is the
case with ‘Emerging Kerala’ event organized by Kerala Government. By having this
event, the Kerala Government wishes to present God’s own country as the most
investment friendly State. Though I like the concept and intention behind the
event, I have doubts about its outcomes and roadmap designed.

The weakest
link of Kerala State has been the dwindling land space. Unfortunately, almost all the
discussions and projects in Emerging Kerala over emphasizes the availability of
land. The State has a very discouraging past where development works involving
national highways, bypass roads and new railway lanes are either grounded or
litigated for many decades. One of the major reasons cited is the lack of
available land. If it is true, I must confess that the projections in the
Emerging Kerala raise so many questions regarding the winnability factors for
influencing investor’s mindset. At the same time, pace of infrastructure
development is important for investors and entrepreneurs to get attracted to a
new destination for the investment and this event happens in the background of
poor roads and connectivity to the different parts of the State. It lacks
improvement in facilities and in that case the investments will be confined to
three or four cities of Kerala ultimately leading to the poor urbanization
outcomes.

Many a
times, I wonder what is the vision statement for Emerging Kerala (not at the
event level) but for the future generations to visualize and implement. How
many employment opportunities are we planning to generate through the proposed
investments? I could not find the
linkages between the human resources available and the projects proposed. I
felt most of them are into construction of buildings including those under
Tourism. It is a State without a proper urban policy statement which can hit
the prospects of investment in the State. My fear is that hype around the land
transaction can make it worse for the middle class as it may lead to the rise
in the real estate prices. This in fact
raises the questions regarding the events such as Emerging Kerala for a tiny
State like ours. Many studies have shown that the conversion rates of the
accepted proposals in the similar events conducted by other States of India are
not so praiseworthy.

The
Government should have avoided the controversy around Emerging Kerala. It can
raise doubts about the Government policies and commitments in the minds of
investors. We should have conducted a Non Resident Malayali summit before
Emerging Kerala. More than 50000 Crores of money deposited by them should have
utilized for building basic infrastructure and to build the confidence amongst
other investors in such an event like Emerging Kerala. Agreements should include the clauses like
the timeline for the completion of the projects in a real time basis. Emerging
Kerala projects the single window system for the investors. I would rather
argue for 24 X 7 single window system that would be more beneficial and
impactful compared to these stop gap arrangements during such an event.

I strongly wish
that my thoughts are aberrations and the State Government has already looked
into these aspects. If that is the case, I wish all the best for Emerging Kerala.

Saturday, September 01, 2012

By Visakh Ranjith, Student of National Law University Bangalore and Intern at Centre for Public Policy Research

The Malayalam film industry is smaller
than its Tamil and Telugu counterparts. However, the industry is unique in the
sense that Malayalam films are based on more artistic values. Not all films are
made for commercial value; aesthetic and cultural values are also given due
importance. This can be seen from the fact that Malayalam films have won
numerous national awards. The industry has also contributed excellent
technicians to the Hindi film industry and some of its directors are highly
reputed for their skills. On an average, the Malayalam film industry produces
around 70 -90 films per year.[1] However, similar to Tamil
and Telugu segments, many films are not released in the theatrical market owing
to lack of market interest and a large percentage of films released fail to
perform. The number of Malayalam films released from 2004 to 2008 has been
declined from 69 in 2004 to 63 in 2008.[2] The time taken to make a
film depends on several factors – the budget of the film and its production
values, the theme of the film, the availability of actors, the quantum of
computer graphics usage, etc. In comparison to the Tamil and Telugu segments,
the Malayalam industry is largely disciplined and completes films in a shorter
time period with smaller budgets. The time taken to make a film varies from 90
days to 150 days, while the period of shooting is typically 45 to 50 days. The
total revenue of the Malayalam film industry segment is estimated to be around
INR 1.4 billion (Financial Year 2009), in terms of total revenue generated by
films. This revenue is shared between the key players in the industry, namely
the producers, distributors and exhibitors.

Last year, though, saw a marked change
in trend. Superstar films failed to attract crowds and movies with new themes
and small budgets reaped success. 95 films released including 6 movies dubbed
from other languages. Total collections was just 120 crore and the loss to the
industry is around 300 crore. This 120
crore is not just from net collections but mainly from the satellite rights
which is the major source of revenue. Most of it came from around 15 to 20
movies while the rest did not manage to make a mark. Salt n
Pepper and Seniors were super
hits and Traffic, Makeup man, Rathinirvedam,
Christian brothers and China town
were hits. Seniors distribution share was 4.2 crores. Salt n Pepper got 3.5 crore and its production cost including press
and publicity was 2.5 crores. Traffic
earned more than 4 crore from theatre collection and satellite rights. Its
production cost was 2.75 crores. Rathinirvedam became one of the biggest
earners of the year by earning a distributor’s share of 2.5 crore and satellite
rights of 1.75 crore. The movie was made at a relatively low budget of 1.4
crore.[3]

The
structure

The change that the industry has
undergone is not restricted to the quality and quantity of movies. The
structure of the industry has also been changing for the past few years with
associations and unions coming into play. Now, every stakeholder in the
industry has an association/union to represent them. Associations/unions like Kerala
Film Producers' Association, Kerala Film Distributors Association, Kerala Cine
Exhibitors Federation, Kerala Film Exhibitors Association, Kerala Film Chamber
of Commerce, Film Employees Federation of Kerala (FEFKA), Malayalam Cine
Technicians Association (MACTA) and Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes
(AMMA) have attained prime importance in the Malayalam film industry to the
extent that being a member in these associations/unions has become necessary to
be involved in any process of film-making in the industry. To understand the
influence of these associations/unions better, it is necessary to look at how
they were formed and what their duties and functions are.

The evolution of the
association culture

The
association/union movement in the film industry started at the national level
with the formation of AIFEC which represented all the film workers in the
country. From there, each language industry started forming unions/associations
for themselves. These unions/associations started gaining power with time but
the Malayalam industry still was not involved in this revolution. But the Film
Chamber of Commerce was formed comprising of the producers, distributors and
exhibitors as a trade body which was the first association in Malayalam. There
was a parallel movement to make a fraternity of sorts and hence was formed the
Malayala Chalachitra Parishad which was a group for everyone involved in the
industry. Another association which was formed later on was MALCA which was not
functional for long. [4]

The
real union movement in Malayalam started with the formation of MACTA as a
cultural welfare forum for the technicians in the industry. The successful
functioning of the Film Chamber had inspired technicians to form an association
for themselves and hence MACTA was formed. It started out as a welfare
organisation with a strong foundation of brotherhood for the betterment of
members, to conduct workshops and to STOP strikes and initiate negotiations.
AMMA was also formed with the same ideals and aims around the same time.[5]

This
system was set up with certain aims and goals to discuss not just rights but
responsibilities too. But with time and change in leadership, problems started.
Banning people from working led to negative feelings creeping in. Technicians
started facing problems representing their interests to the film chamber. Also,
people who work in both Malayalam and other industries had to take multiple
memberships as MACTA was not affiliated to other unions/associations because it
was not technically a trade union. And so, to increase the negotiating power of
technicians, a decision was taken to form a trade union and hence, FEFKA was
formed.[6] The advent of a trade union was dreaded by
producers and other players and they took an antagonistic stance. In this
process, a lot of hatred and negativity came in among different stakeholders.
In place of the feeling of fraternity that led to the formation of these associations/unions,
antagonism came to define the new face of unionism. It needs to be seen whether
these association/unions formed for the betterment of the industry have
actually helped the industry or led to make the situation worse.

Kerala Film Chamber of
Commerce

The
Kerala Film Chamber of Commerce is a society comprising of the Producers,
Distributors and Exhibitors in the Malayalam Film Industry. The main role of
the Chamber is to lobby with the government for laws/rules favourable to the
industry are enacted.[7]
Laws regarding taxes are the main concern. Their major achievement in this area
is that they brought down the entertainment tax which was as high as 48% to 25%
in the past years.[8]
The Chamber’s governing council consists of 43 members. The Chamber comes into
play in the movie-making process for title registration and for getting three
certificates that are necessary to obtain the Censor Board certification. The
three certificates are: Title registration certificate, Publicity clearance
certificate and Membership certificate.[9]
It is to be noted that membership of the Chamber is necessary for the Producer
to obtain these certificates and hence, to obtain the Censor Board
certification. For a producer to get membership in the Film Chamber, he has to
produce letters from all the main technicians and artistes of the movie he
plans to make stating that they have made an agreement with this producer to
participate in the making of the said movie. These letters have to be produced
before the Executive Committee of the Chamber with the recommendation letters
from two Executive Committee members following which, the application for
membership will be kept pending till the producer produces the Censor
certificate for the film.[10]
When this is produced, the membership is granted. This is to make sure that
only people who are genuinely interested in making movies will come forward and
apply for a membership. The Film Chamber deals with only the Business aspect of
the industry and is separate from the artistes’ unions and associations. Multiplexes
have not taken membership in the Chamber.

MACTA

MACTA or Malayalam Cine Technicians Association
is a welfare association of technicians working in the Malayalam film industry.
It was formed under the Literary and Scientific Societies Act. Its functions
included settling disputes regarding remuneration, issuing work permit etc.[11]. But now these functions
are carried out by FEFKA. MACTA is now
just a welfare association which conducts short-term scriptwriting
workshops/courses the talented students of which are given opportunities in
movies that members make, provides help to members who are in need of it etc.[12]

MACTA has around 1500 members. MACTA and
FEFKA have different functions and exist as separate entities. There are common
members. Membership is of three types. Life Membership which is Honorary,
Active membership which is for the people who are active in the field now and
has a small per annum membership fee and Associate Membership which is for the
people who work as assistants and
associates under the main technicians.[13]

FEFKA

FEFKA or Film Employees Federation of
Kerala is a union of film technicians formed under the Trade Unions Act. It is
a self-regulatory body which has 16 separate unions for different technicians under
it. In the directors’ union alone, there are around 600 members (including
assistant directors). FEFKA was formed in 2008 when there was consensus that a
trade union needed to be formed. In 2011, FEFKA got affiliated to AIFEC (All
India Film Employees Confederation).[14]

Membership in FEFKA is necessary to work
as a technician in the Malayalam film industry. For a newcomer director, first,
a work permit has to be applied for from FEFKA. This work permit lets him start
production. But only after he completes two movies, he is given complete
membership. The newcomer Director also has to donate a certain amount to FEFKA
for his membership. This amount is lowered depending on the needs of the
director and is decided by the executive committee. An interview process is
also in place to determine the person’s capability and credentials. FEFKA is
also involved in settling disputes between technicians and other people in the
industry. It also gives financial help to members who are in need of it.[15]

AMMA

AMMA was formed with to find out the
issues concerning the Artistes, to analyse them and to find out possible
remedies. Besides protecting the financial status of the members, AMMA also
promotes and develops better relations between its members and other
associations. Promotion and development of healthy relationships with
associations of the similar spirit, is also feature among the objectives of
AMMA. Helping the weaker section of the public, by introducing scholarships for
educational purposes, housing schemes etc. also tops the list of priorities of
the association by extending financial assistance at the time of natural
calamities.[16]

AMMA also trains and develop the arts of
action, dance, music, drama or other arts in the cine field or any other art by
establishing colleges or institutes and to pay scholarships, prizes, merit
certificates and honouring the scholars. AMMA publishes journals and magazines
for developing Art, Culture and General Knowledge and thus contribute to the
overall development of the artistes. AMMA consider it their privilege and
professional obligation to the growing cine industry of Malayalam to conduct
dramas, star-nights, dance and music performances and group discussions to
boost up the artistic spirit and aspirations of the artists participating in
it. To protect the members from unemployment and to help the qualified and
needy members with financial help come under AMMA’s objectives.[17]

The organizational hierarchy of AMMA makes
a clear cut division of duties and responsibilities- President,
Vice-Presidents, Secretary, General Secretary, Treasurer, Executive
Committee.[18]
AMMA also maintains a library and conduct study circles, workshops, etc. and
arrange lectures for the benefit of the members. To act as arbitrators in all
disputes that may be submitted to them for arbitration by the members and
others in film field industry gives AMMA a unique status as a body with much
dignity and powers. It also collects and furnishes statistics regarding the
various phases of the Malayalam film industry.

The
role of the state

The
oppressive taxation and indifferent attitude of the government indicates that
it sees the film industry as a source of financial benefits. They have failed
to recognize that the industry is in trouble and that theatre houses are disappearing.
The huge amounts of loss suffered by different players, means that government
involvement in the form of some sort of concession is required to keep the
industry alive. The governments in other states have been taking steps towards
this.

A
major issue in which the state has been inconsiderate is in the case of the
cine workers welfare fund. This fund has not yet been separated from the beedi
workers welfare fund for which a G.O. is required.[19]
According to the Cine Workers Welfare Cess Act, 1981 and the Cine Workers
Welfare Fund Act 1981, an amount has to be deposited to this fund from each
movie’s budget and so, a large amount of money has been deposited till now.[20]
But since there is no awareness regarding the existence of such a fund and how to
make use of it, most of the fund goes unused. The head office for the fund in Kerala
is in Kannur because of the large number of beedi workers in Kannur.[21]
This shows that the state has failed to recognize the needs of the film
industry. There have been continuous requests from various associations for the
separation of the two funds and to set up a head office in either Trivandrum or
Kochi. Yet there has been no step taken towards this. The provisions of the
fund, if used could alleviate a lot of the problems faced by cine workers now.
The fund provides for many facilities like medicine, education etc. All this is
largely unused by Malayalam cine workers.

Conclusion

The Malayalam film industry is
suffering. But to suggest that there is no hope or that there is no solution to
this suffering would be wrong. Profitability is still low for Malayalam films only
because the resources that are available are not being exploited. What we have
seen around the world in the case of the film business is that as the industry
expands, revenue sources shift to those other than theatre collections. Be it
home video, satellite or even internet, the avenues are many. Malayalam cinema
is at that point in time where this diversification needs to happen. Producers
are finding it hard to be committed to a business that involves such risk that
it is possible that they might not even recover half the cost. The dependence
on theatre revenue is reducing with satellite revenue becoming more important
but there are many sources left to be explored. Tamil and Telugu film
industries have developed a marketing strategy which makes their products
appealing to the people of other states. According to a study, 25% of the
revenue for Tamil and Telugu movies comes from other states.[1] Exploitation of the
international theatrical is another area where Tamil and Telugu movies have
done well. Malayalam cinema needs to venture into these arenas, if it hopes to
move forward.

In Hollywood, the practice of releasing
low budget movies straight to DVD, known as Direct-to-video, is followed. This
has led to the growth of independent films and also provides for large revenues
for the production houses. Films which after production are shelved due to
different reasons like unavailability of distributors and willing exhibitors,
certification issues or other such problems, can be released direct-to-video
and some amount of the costs can be recovered this way. This will also provide
incentive for more new talent to come in as the restrictions on their entry are
reduced and there is more creative freedom. Right now the system in Hollywood
sees direct-to-video as a fall-back but in China, the same concept has gained
wide acceptance as a niche product. “Original Video”, as it is known in China,
is not associated with low production values and poor storylines that the DTV
movies of Hollywood are and has gained respect from the public for the content
and from the film-makers for the creative freedom that it allows.

A film-maker who wants to make a film in
Malayalam presently has two options – to go through the system which involves
getting memberships in the appropriate unions/associations and going by their
rules or to challenge these establishments and take the rough road. The
associations and unions have set certain rules and regulations so that the
industry has some sort of self-regulatory system. In some cases, we have seen
that this system becomes too restrictive in nature and enforces their interests
on the traders, artistes and technicians. In such a situation, since the system
in place has a presence at every stage of the movie-making process, it becomes
incredibly difficult to go against it. A producer, who decides he will not
become a member of any association, might find it difficult to find a
Distributor or Exhibitor. A person who chooses to challenge the system, in most
cases, hence finds it extremely hard to fulfil his purpose. To brave the
resistance of an entire industry is not an easy task. But to say that it is
impossible to do that would be wrong as we recently saw Director Vinayan pull
it off. But it is to be understood that the quality of the film will suffer
when you do not have access to the great pool of talent of this industry. This
means it is almost impossible to make the movie that you want to make without
being part of the system. When such a restrictive system exists, the entry of
new talent is blocked and the industry suffers a loss as this new talent will
move on to find other avenues to express their ideas. This can be seen in the
recent tendency of artistes and technicians to migrate to other language film
industries in search of either higher pay or more creative freedom. So it must
be understood by these associations and unions that if they muscle new talent
out, it will come back to bite them as their success is not permanent in an
ever-changing industry because at some point in the future, the audience will
reject anything that is unoriginal.

To blame the associations and unions for
this situation is not entirely correct. The system is not the cause of the
problem, the misuse of it is. A feeling of insecurity among the leadership of
these associations and unions seems to be at the core of this. This has to
change for the industry to become more open. These associations and unions were
formed with the aim of promoting Malayalam cinema. Today all those ideas have
been lost and a new sense of authority has taken over at the helm of affairs.
It has reached a point where they are concerned about only their rights and not
their duties. For this to change, a joint effort from all sections of the
industry must take place. The old ideals of fraternity and brotherhood must be reintegrated
into the objectives of these associations and unions and understanding the
needs of the industry, a system that works must be arrived at.

Whether a system is needed at all is a
debate that needs to be looked at from all angles. On one side, there is the
argument that creative expression should not be restricted or regulated.
Arguments for the system would say that the people involved in a trade which
involves such financial risk need protection. Dispute resolution is another
area where the involvement of associations and unions has been justified. With
a considerable section of the industry especially at the lower levels of
employment benefitting from the protection that this system provides but the
creative freedom of others being curtailed, it is hard to weigh one against the
other. To do that would be to choose between cinema as a livelihood and cinema
as a medium for artistic expression. To pick one would not be fair to the other
and so, this debate will go on.

International film studios are producing
and distributing regional movies. Of the top six international movie studios,
four are involved in distributing or producing Indian movies. A number of
Indian film studios and media and entertainment companies are acquiring international
theater chains and production studios. Small-budget niche films with high-quality
scripts have recently gained acceptability among mainstream audiences. Strong
content and word-of-mouth marketing have helped studios to generate high
returns from these films. Indian studios are realizing the importance of
direct-to-consumer engagement through social media to generate positive word of
mouth during the release of a film. Some are charging customers to participate in
exclusive online chats between lead actors and audiences prior to a release. The
way cinema is perceived is changing rapidly and in this wave of change, the
Malayalam industry must not stay behind. By adopting techniques that are
feasible for the industry’s dynamics, it should look to move on to new methods
and ideas. There is no doubt that change is necessary. But it is essential that
the change be a step forward.